Facebook is not a useful tool for meaningful thought or discussion. Oh, yeah, it’s great for wishing someone happy birthday, or announcing happy news, or sharing life’s tidbits. But reducing our current political climate to memes simply dumbs-down the discussion. While some memes are quite clever, most are simply ignorant. I fault all – regardless of where on the political spectrum – for thinking a meme is helpful. While because of my own politics I roll my eyes at more conservative memes, there are liberal and progressive ones that are equally unintelligent.
After nearly seven years of blog silence, I’ve resurrected the blog I started back in 2007. At that time, “Conquering the Divide” was my personal forum to write of my life in Canada, differences between the US & Canada, and other musings. I last wrote in 2013, and in 2014, our then-web hosting lost everything. Just recently I went to the Wayback Machine, a fun site to look up old websites, and lo and behold! Conquering the Divide lived there!
I had the site restored, and used a couple of 3rd party services to work out the chinks. I’m so happy that Conquering the Divide has returned.
It’s nice to be back. Hope you’ll enjoy it, but the main purpose is self-therapeutic.
Yes, agree that Facebook is of limited value. I am there primarily because my daughter posts unique photos of the world’s greatest two grandkids there, so if I want to see the photos, I have to be there.
And I can enjoy keeping up with some friends there. But political discussions are impossible, even on things I would expect are universal. Sigh.
Welcome back.
Good. I did it for several years on the old Newsvine. Got into some lively but often unproductive duels. All lost when Newsvine morphed into something else. Even though most of it was “blowin’ in the wind” (or into cyberspace), the exercise was still a symptom of my lingering hope. That’s something. I even made a few cyber “friends.”
Re facebook, there are always some upsides to having a forum where we can defend our positions and discover the holes in our own arguments. Facebook has taught me an important hallmark of the information age, that there is a huge divide between belief and fact. Psychologists call it Cognitive Dissonance, “the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.” wiki
I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than a brief description. My take is that unfounded blather has found too many unchallenged seats at the table of public opinion.
You are right about birthdays and life events. Looking on the bright side, I love seeing relatives and friends on three continents. It’s actually amazing.
Tilting at windmills, slaying of dragons, ghostbusting, investigative journalism…….it all makes sense to me. So, have fun, Diane.
I am currently having a good laugh at “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” They omitted an “always.” Have a good one.